~ politics for the people

London man in critical condition after being shot by police | UK news | The Guardian

It seems beyond the pale to shoot a man because he does not want to be evicted from his home – but if he was threatening harm to others, who has the moral high ground?

Should ordinary people be pushed into extraordinary situations like this? We don’t know the circumstances of this “planned eviction” but if it didn’t involved the Bedroom Tax or some other government policy, we can all rest assured it will be just a matter of time before another incident happens that does.

A man is in critical condition in hospital after being shot by police officers in south London, according to Scotland Yard and the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC). Police said the incident occurred during a planned eviction, which was due to take place on Friday morning.

Unarmed officers were said to be escorting a housing officer when a man was reported to have emerged from one of the rooms in the property in Lambeth. A siege began when armed officers were sent to deal with the situation and the man was shot by police outside the premises shortly before 5pm, officers said.

The London ambulance service attended and treated the man at the scene, before he was taken to a south London hospital suffering serious injuries.

In a statement released while the siege was going on, the Metropolitan police said: “Officers attended and were threatened by the suspect who is believed to be in possession of a firearm.” But, later on Friday, a spokeswoman said that she could not clarify whether or not the man had, in fact, been armed because the IPCC had subsequently opened an investigation into the shooting.

The man in this incident was taken to hospital in critical condition and it is not clear whether the police who shot him followed their own rules, which require them to show they acted to protect their own lives or those of others.

@ Tony Dean
“and they can kill.”…………… and lead bullets don’t? Tranquilising darts are quite effective at downing a human without killing them. Should the target receive multiple darts resulting in overdose of the tranquilising or anaesthetic agent antidotes are available. There’s no antidote for a bullet in the brain or heart. The Met are gun-happy, shoot first then ask questions. Whenever I have to travel across London I’m glad that part of my journey is over.

There have been a number of high profile cases where armed police have shot people under questionable circumstances. I cannot recall one where the police officer as been subsequently found guilty though I’m sure there must be one?

My impression though is that under the present system officers are unlikely to face punishment for misuse of their weapons so can pretty much get away with their use of apparently excessive force.

So long as they can blast away with impunity we will continue to see this drift to legalised violence that tarnishes the reputation of both good and bad members of the force.

What a travesty, first the cops kill animals – a cow for God’s sake because nobody had the savvy to lead it from a dangerous place, then the excuse for another killing is the anaesthetic team wasn’t available, now we have an eviction by bullet from cop. More and more people see the police as a state menace and less like the person you tell your kids to turn to, if they are lost or in trouble. Britain lost it’s “Great” a long time ago under Blair and more so under Cameron and Clegg but we are moving further to the chaos of third world regimes, little by little. Many of my friends on the social media observing from abroad think Cameron is a despot and three quarters of the people live under his heel(which isn’t that far from the truth) but whether it can ever be reversed is debatable.

Ah, the pogroms have started to be enforced by gunfire now – it’s only a matter of time before people realise they have nothing to lose but their chains.
It only needs one person with the right skills and resources to deal with the real threat to this country – and just remember how this government has treated its ex-servicemen, many of whom will have friends still in the services, with access to all the necessary equipment to arrest the Tory Junta and put them on trial for their human rights abuses.

We definitely need more details but whether we will get the truth or not is itself debatable.
The only way to defeat and reverse this nonsense is to come together and support each other. There are lots of bold and imaginative ways of taking on the banks and stopping foreclosures and if that is what is found to be the case here then it is worrying because they are normally peaceful.
People have far more power than they realise but by supporting each other and taking on these issues we can reverse this trend.
Very worrying is the fact that the police are being used as enforcers for the criminal banks and if they are now murdering as well things have definitely moved up a very serious notch.
Quite right, Mike, never, ever give up or let the b’s get you down!
x

By the way, I agree with what’s said above about shooting; I didn’t want to seem as if I was supporting what happened in any way. It’s disgusting. Even if the fellow was desperate enough to have had a gun – and I very much doubt that he did – there must have been another way to deal with it.

The man is now described as being in a “stable” condition and has been arrested, interestingly, “on suspicion of possession of a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence”. So he was trying to scare them off?

In any circumstances where someone is about to lose their home, not a “property” or “accommodation” but somewhere they should be able to be safe, it has to be expected that that person may not react well. Therefore a proper assessment of the person and their mental state and general health and ability to cope should always be made before any eviction can even be considered. As in tell the money-men to **** off until the human side is sorted!

I don’t know the full story. If he was holding a loaded gun to someone’s head then shooting him is understandable. If he was unarmed it’s unjustified. If he was armed but not about to kill or hurt someone but might do, then it depends on the circumstances.

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